B-movie

American  

[bee-moo-vee] / ˈbiˌmu vi /

noun

1. a low-budget movie made especially to accompany a major feature film on a double bill.

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B-movie British  

noun

1. a film originally made (esp in Hollywood in the 1940s and 50s) as a supporting film, now often considered as a genre in its own right

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Etymology

Origin of B-movie

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

The next likely contender for the award is “The Lost Boys,” a spectacle-heavy, bloated stage version of the B-movie from the 1980s about young vampires marauding in a California beach town.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 5, 2026

A re-recorded Rock Lobster became a minor hit, followed by similarly danceable, subtly transgressive, B-movie party classics like Dance This Mess Around, Give Me Back My Man and Mesopotamia.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2026

Among his contemporaries was Ed Meese, a recurring figure in the conservative movement and a close ally of a certain B-movie actor turned archconservative governor of California: Ronald Reagan.

From Slate • Oct. 21, 2025

Her agency removes the film’s voyeuristic aspect, which would make for an exciting, fresh take on the B-movie genre if Coen and Cooke’s screenplay wasn’t so head-scratchingly muddled.

From Salon • Aug. 23, 2025

‘It makes you look like an alien in a B-movie.’

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd